lax security
For three years now, reports
The Tennessean, the owner of a solar panel company in Indiana says "confidential medical faxes" have been sent to him by doctors throughout Tennessee. His fax number is apparently very similar to the one for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, but although he's contacted the errant doctors' offices, as well as reported it to the DHS and to the state's governor's office, they keep coming.
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scams
Nick has written in to warn us about a
fake IRS scam that lately has been targeting nonresident aliens (e.g. teachers and researchers) working in the U.S., as well as American citizens working abroad. In the scam, which has been going on
since at least 2002 (pdf), the target receives a faxed request from the IRS to provide his name, SSN, and pretty much every other bit of data you'd need to take over a person's financial identity.
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confessions
Joe used to work at a multi-million-dollar fax spam company. Since it's illegal to cold call fax, here's the trick they would use to start fax-spamming a company and be covered in case of legal action. It's all about
pretexting the secretary. Here's how it works:
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class actions
Verizon will pay $6 million to businesses in Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama for sending 10,145 junk faxes advertising its services. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act bans businesses from sending unsolicited faxes, and allows for fines reaching up to $1,500 for each violation. Verizon will pay class members only $625 per fax, despite their crack legal team's best efforts to deploy novel and absurd legal arguments in Verizon's defense.
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customer service
Joanna thought she could send out two free faxes using eFax, but when she did, she got an email telling her she needed to upgrade. Purchase the paid service just to use the demo? That doesn't sound right. She tried to connect to eFax sales chat to get her problem solved.
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easyjet
If at first you don't succeed, fax, fax again. And again.
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Consumerist
Vonage has settled a class action lawsuit over its flaky fax service, but participants can only expect to see between $4-19 repayment. You have until March 2, 2009 to file a claim or an objection. [Bustos Fax Settlement] (Thanks to Klay!)
executive customer service
